Roseate Frog

Geocrinia rosea (Harrison 1927)

Species Info Card | Updated 1 decade ago

A small short-legged species with a smooth belly. The undersurface ranges from intense pink to red or fawn. The upper surface is grey or brown with a broad, darker brown mid-dorsal patch (often resembling a tooth). The throat of males is dark black. Maximum size is 2.5 cm.

Breeding Biology

Males call in September and October from a shallow depression. Development is entirely terrestrial with no need for free standing water.

25 to 30 eggs are laid on land in shallow depressions or tunnels beside streams. After hatching, tadpoles spend their entire development in the jelly from the eggs when the membranes break down. Metamorphs have been seen in November.

Habitat

Karri and Jarrah forests of the south-west. Beneath vegetation and rotten logs.

Etymology

rosea refers to the rose-coloured belly of this species.

General

This species has been recently successfully bred at the Perth Zoo as a model for the more threatened Geocrinia species in the south-west, the White-bellied (G. alba) and Yellow-bellied Frogs (G. vittelina).

Restricted to the deep south-west, from Margaret River east to Walpole.

The call is a 'tk...tk...tk...tk'.